


How Many Copycats Can There Be?

by SereneSorrow



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-03-08 06:23:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13452378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow
Summary: Hatake Kakashi lost just about everyone who was ever important to him. Even picking up a few new precious people, like his students, along the way hasn't been enough to put him back together again. That's why it's more devastating than anything else when he's confronted with so many familiar faces. It doesn't really feel like a second chance, more like he's being forced to relive some of the worst moments of his life.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eeek! So this is about three days worth of writing, I've challenged myself to post something every day which has ended up meaning I only manage to get about a page written per chapter so they've been really short mostly, but this just wouldn't have split up well so I kept working on it. The point is that after this the chapters are going to be shorter! Sorry. :)

     Clearing out Orochimaru's hideouts to be suitable to live in was irritating, Sasuke decided as he stared at one of the sealed doors. The whole place was a contradiction of sanitary and filthy, and while they didn't have a need for most of the space, leaving who knows what to fester in here was too much of a risk. They all remembered the carnivorous mold incident. Which was why they were going through _every room_ , and why it was such a nuisance that this door was sealed in a way that Sasuke was finding difficult to counter. The seal painted over the door and spreading to the walls on either side was high quality fuinjutsu, and despite what he'd learned about his own curse mark seals were still not something he had a lot of knowledge of. This one _seemed_ to want some kind of jutsu as a key, the right one performed in front of or in contact with the door should just trigger it to unlock but Sasuke couldn't say just what jutsu it might be.

     Letting out a growl of frustration Sasuke's chakra built and he performed the handsigns for the last jutsu he'd learned from his sensei in the Leaf Village. The chirping sound echoed, bouncing down the hallway in either direction and he felt his team's chakra flare in alarm but with a growl Sasuke thrust his fist forward to slam against the seal on the door. He felt a resistance at first that to his surprise gave way as the door suddenly disintegrated in a flash of light that preceded a roar of thundering stone as the room collapsed taking much of the corridor with it.

***

     The rest of team Hebi landed on the shifting rubble and observed the pile of strangers that was attempting to sort itself out, bickering and squabbling all the while. They were seeing a lot of Leaf headbands. To the side a boulder shifted and a number of stones were blown away as Sasuke emerged covered in shallow cuts from under the pile of stones.

     “What happened Sasuke? We felt your chakra and then this whole area collapsed.” Karin asked.

     “I was trying to get that sealed door open!” Sasuke explained with a growl, eyes taking in the strangers without glancing aside even once at his team.

     He started towards the strangers despite Karin's warning to be careful, picking his way over the loose rocks. They had managed to extricate themselves and had gathered into three separate groups, eyeing each other warily.

     “I don't suppose we're lucky enough that this _wasn't_ something I did.” Sasuke spoke up so that he caught the strangers attention, all of them turning their confused gazes to him.

     “We were going to get ramen! You better have an explanation for this, brat!” A woman with long red hair said loudly from the group in the middle that included a blonde man her age and three kids who were clearly experienced ninja despite being younger than him, a girl and two boys. The blonde man seemed familiar somehow but Sauske ignored the feeling and took a closer look at the silver haired boy, knowing immediately why he was familiar.

     Getting a bad feeling his gaze darted to the group on the right, another blonde man and a red haired woman who appeared to be pregnant and who looked almost exactly like the pair with the kids though an anbu guard stood warily beside them, just shy of reaching for his weapons. A look deep into the mask's eyes showed that the left eye was sharingan red though the man's hair was covered. Another disturbingly familiar feeling. Finally Sauske looked at the pair standing to the left. A man and a boy both with the same familiar silver hair.

     “Hn.” Sasuke grunted. Kakashi. _Why had Orochimaru's trapped lab summoned multiple versions of Kakashi-sensei?_ He activated his sharingan just to be sure that they weren't a genjutsu and the anbu darted forward, a blade aimed for Sasuke's throat but with his sword Sasuke easily blocked it.

     “Hatake Kakashi was my Jonin-sensei.” Sasuke announced to gauge the rooms reactions. The anbu stilled instead of attempting another attack and everyone else gaped at him.

     “Oh! Sasuke-kun is this some kind of time travel? Some of them look like each other too much to just be relatives.” Karin exclaimed.

     “I broke a seal. I don't know how that would summon a bunch of people from various pasts, but maybe something in the room behind the sealed door was the cause.” Sasuke said, finally dispelling his sharingan.

***

     Minato flicked a few fingers in a quick signal and Kakashi darted back to his side, still wary of the strangers. Minato could tell that the other versions of themselves were distressing Kakashi, hell, they were unnerving him too. He also didn't miss that the Uchiha teen who was supposedly named Sasuke had caught his movement even without his sharingan active, though he probably couldn't know what it had meant.

     “So we're in the future? Awesome!” Obito cried, and the anbu flinched minutely.

     “Hn.” Sasuke said, glancing at the boy with the uchiwa symbol on his clothes. “What's your name?”

     The younger Minato pulled Obito towards himself protectively.

     “That's a great idea. We should all introduce ourselves. I assume that the less any of us share about various 'future' events the better?” The elder Minato suggested to redirect everyone's attention and dampen possible hostilities. He was also grateful that he rarely bothered wearing the hat. “Namikaze Minato, Uzumaki Kushina,” Minato glanced aside at Kakashi who had remained masked, “and Hound.” He smiled at his younger self and nodded encouragingly like he would to one of his students. His younger self seemed a bit bemused to be on the receiving end of this own encouragement, but before he could decide how to react the younger Kushina spoke up.

     “Uzumaki Kushina, Namikaze Minato, Uchiha Obito, Hatake Kakashi, and Nohara Rin!” She listed off with energetic speed.

     Then they both turned to the last pair, though they both knew who they were. Minato was a little surprised to see that Kakashi had edged about as close as he could get to his father without actually touching. Kakashi was clearly already his student based on the headband, and the way Sakumo held himself so defensively and the way his face was drawn suggested that his disastrous mission had already occurred.

     The man tilted his head in acknowledgement of Minato and Kushina's recognition and turned to their 'hosts'. “Hatake Sakumo and my son Kakashi.” He said to the Uchiha who seemed to be the leader.

     “Hn.” The Uchiha said, flicking a quick glance at Hound and then meeting the Kage's gaze. “Uchiha Sauske.” He then nodded to his team briefly. “Karin, Jugo and Suigetsu.”

     “Well if you don't know how we all got here then I suppose we should work together to figure it out. You said there was a seal?” Minato asked.

     “Under all of this somewhere.” Sauske said without looking away from him. “There are probably a lot of traps though. We're more familiar with Or- his work by now, the seal was an anomaly. You should leave this to us.”

     “We were about to leave for a mission! We can't just-” Obito's loud voice started but he was interrupted.

     “Either your disappearance is already rectified in enough time that it doesn't change the outcome of your mission or you can't be sent back at all. We don't know what will happen but this place is basically a classified location that you shouldn't know anything about.” This Sasuke was fairly stoic, he hadn't reacted emotionally to anything so far. It was a surprising opposite of Minato's old student but the teen probably fit right in with the rest of their clan, Minato supposed.

     “You may be from this time but we are all experienced ninjas.” Kushina insisted. “We know about seals.”

     “Even so, I'm afraid I can't allow you to see the contents of this room when we excavate it. Anyway, we don't have enough supplies here for you all too. You should head to the village.” Sasuke insisted.

     “We're not in the village?” they were all surprised as they had all been inside the Leaf Village before they had suddenly arrived here.

     “It's not far, but no. I can send a message ahead and you should use henges the whole way. Just go strait to Hokage Tower.” Sauske decided.

     Both Minato's frowned and both Kushina's got ready to start yelling, though they were distracted with trying to decide who would get to yell at the Uchiha brat first but the Hokage eventually decided that even though Sasuke didn't know much more than they did he did seem to be the one with the best handle on the situation, and consulting with the Hokage sounded like a good idea. _Another version of himself?_ Minato thought with a suppressed chuckle.

     “I think that's the best we can do at this point.” He spoke over both his wife and his girlfriend.

     “How do we know they didn't bring us here on purpose and are lying about it?” Obito cried, interrupting a surprised Minato. He'd forgotten some of his student's quirks it seemed.

     “Because they're not keeping us here or forcing us to do anything?” Kakashi said with a distasteful glare at his teammate.

     “I'm sure we'd all like to get home?” Minato suggested again and the rest reluctantly agreed in the end.

     “Summon Pakkun.” Sasuke said, addressing no one in particular. Both of the younger Kakashi's stared hard at the strange Uchiha and Hound struggled not to give away his own surprise. “I've spoken with him before, I'll give him a message and we can send him ahead of you.” He explained.

     The youngest Kakashi looked at his slightly older counterpart and that Kakashi looked at his sensei, gratifying as the boy rarely heeded Minato's judgement but this was an unorthodox situation. Minato-sensei nodded and Kakashi summoned the nindog.

     When the smoke cleared the dog that appeared was dressed in some kind of vest with a henohenomoheji on the back and his own leaf headband. Kakashi blanched in surprise and Obito burst out laughing while the rest of their group struggled not to smile. Most failed.

     “Boss?” Pakkun asked skeptically, sniffing at the boy and then scenting the air around them.

     “Pakkun.” Sasuke called, causing the dog to whip around and to most of their surprise start growling warningly at the Uchiha. Sasuke didn't move, his eyes looking away from the dog. “Apparently one of the snake's projects was some kind of time travel or something. I was hoping you could bring a message to the Hokage, before all of these people arrive in the Leaf Village."

     The nindog settled down, still looking disgruntled but ready to hear more about the situation. Disappointingly, Sasuke's abrupt and concise report of the situation didn't explain anything that any of the time travelers didn't already know about their situation. Pakkun was clearly curious but he didn't interrupt or ask for more details. He just nodded and told the group to expect some kind of welcome, most likely a guard, when they got closer to the village and then the nindog departed to deliver the message.

     They were shown out of the building, which turned out to really be a system of caves that had been turned into some kind of hidden laboratory that looked to have been abandoned for quite some time until recently. The strangers remained wary of them and a number of threatening gazes were traded, it almost seemed like Sasuke was warning his team not to start anything with them and Minato wondered absently why none of them were wearing headbands.

     The younger Kushina sidled up to the girl, Karin, as they walked. “I know not everyone with red hair might be an Uzumaki but-”

     “Tch. Yes. I am. Not that it matters.” The girl said with a glare that kept Kushina from asking anything more.

     They exited the cave and blinked in the bright light as Sasuke's team turned back and Sasuke pointed mutely in the direction of the village before they all disappeared back into the dark. Being in Fire Country already they didn't need more than that to find their way but they all still blinked at the abrupt dismissal.

     “Well okay. I guess we'd better get going.” Minato suggested with a shrug at the stranger's odd behavior and soon they were all henged and leaping through the trees towards home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I feel like now more than ever my disinterest in describing every persons clothing is a flaw. Was it confusing trying to figure out who was here and who was talking? Should I try to put in more info about Hokage Minato wearing his white coat and who has a Jonin vest and who has what weapons on them or was it okay? … ? … ?


	2. Chapter 2

     There was more than a little bit of trouble just sorting out their formation as they traveled. Of course the groups that had come from the same times were hesitant to mix with each other, but more than that they were worried what would happen if a younger version of themselves were to be hurt if they were attacked along the way. Minato couldn't help glancing at his former students, wishing he could be sure enough that everyone was who they seemed to be to speak with them.

     Hound was clearly attempting to guard everyone, his Hokage and Kushina from everyone else and the whole group from any possible ambush. As if Hound's entire team didn't have enough trouble on a good day just guarding one of the two of them, even Kakashi couldn't divide his attention that far. It didn't help that his wife refused to be treated as fragile and excluded from any action just because she was nearing her due date and wouldn't stay anywhere near the center of the group. All told the formation was shifting constantly, every one of them felt equally capable of guarding everyone else.

     “Enough!” Minato finally exclaimed, halting on a tree branch and grabbing his wife's arm before she could shrug him off. “We're all on the same side here.” He said as the rest of them halted around him.

     Even henged it wasn't too difficult to tell who was who. Sakumo had changed his hair color to brown and was dressed in basic jonin clothes, his son had hidden his weapons and likewise had dark hair. Kushina was blonde and wearing a more stereotypical kunoichi outfit, Minato-sensei was a red-haired jonin with green eyes and orange bandages, and the students had decided on a more general genin look. Hound, who was crouched on another branch above him had simply changed to a generic hunter-nin's mask and kept much of his gear visible.

     “I know you're more than capable of defending yourself Kushina but there's no need to court risk. Get in the middle of the formation.” Minato managed to win the glaring contest that provoked, but only because Hound twitched and Kushina realized it would mean a lot to their own kakashi too. “Obito, Rin, I know you've been on A-rank missions but I'd still feel better if you only had to guard yourselves.”

     Over their complaints and Obito's whining about why Kakashi wasn't also being 'treated like a child' Minato glanced at Sakumo who nodded, instructing his son to stay in the center as well. Minato was starting to worry just how close Sakumo was to the night of his death, that he was being so obedient and not bothering to voice an opinion.

     “So that's settled and we can go now?” Student-Kakashi asked.

     “Yes, let's move on.” Minato-sensei decided, and Minato huffed but followed his younger counterpart's lead. _Interesting_. Minato stayed to the right of the formation, Kushina on the left with Kakashi and Sakumo and Hound at the back.

     The rest of the trip was as uneventful as it could be with Obito confronted with two Kakashi's - _that he knew of_ -. The arguing was distracting but it seemed that the forest around them was at peace. Perhaps this was a not a wartime and they didn't need to worry about enemy ninjas. The Uchiha hadn't mentioned any danger they would have to look out for.

     “Bakashi! You're in the way, stop stealing my branches!” Obito insisted, while the younger Kakashi rolled his eyes and ignored the older boy.

     “Seriously though, time travel? We're not going to discuss this? I mean look! Kushina-nee's gonna have a kid!” Obito cried and Minato was sure that the younger versions of himself and his wife both blushed at his outburst.

     “Obito, if we know too much about the future we could change things! Don't you ever read? That's _usually_ a bad thing.” Rin explained.

     “We don't know enough about what is going on to start interfering with things, I think it's safest for all of us to operate as though we really can change the past just by knowing what happens in the future, and we should be cautious.” Minato said, knowing that Obito was unlikely to heed warnings for caution.

     “Aww sensei! Can old-you even tell us what to do?” Obito whined.

     “Old! I'm not-” Minato gasped at his former student in betrayal as both Kushina's howled with laughter.

     It was a relief when they were finally within sight of Konoha's gates. They'd been repainted apparently, and Minato thought that there was something else odd about them but he couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was. A number of ninjas were lingering just inside the village, as well as two chunin sitting at a table just off to the side. As they landed Hound tensed and Minato noticed the faint edge of chakra signifying Anbu teams observing them.

     “Welcome to the leaf village.” A young man with a senbon in his teeth - _Genma?!_ \- said, giving their group a once over but looking disinterested. Minato knew he wasn't. He was amazed however at the sight of one of his Anbu guards dressed as a tokubetsu jonin. Genma looked comfortable in the uniform, as though he was used to the visible rank. Minato didn't know if he was proud of the man or baffled at just how he had changed.

     “The Hokage's waiting.” Genma said with a tilt of his head into the village behind him.

     “Of course.” Minato-sensei agreed as Minato blurted out something about senbon safety which the group around them responded to with chuckles and even outright laughter. Genma smirked and spit the needle into a tree trunk thirty feet away before turning to lead them into the village, ignoring  Obito and Rin's amazement.

     The walk was direct, either to test if they knew where they were supposed to be going or to prevent them from seeing any more of the village than necessary Minato couldn't exactly say but Genma just made sure the group stayed together as the Anbu on the rooftops kept an eye on them.

     “What's wrong with the Hokage mountain?” Obito asked, tilting his head as he stared up at the great stone faces.

     “Sensei? Is that you?” Rin asked, pointing to the fourth face.

     Genma huffed, it looked like he was trying not to laugh.

     “It is.” Minato said to her, ducking in to ruffle Obito's hair before the boy could stop him. Luckily his younger self was too busy deflecting Kushina's outrage at having been beaten to the hat and didn't have time to get overprotective of his students.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha! I managed to describe a bit of what some of them look like! Too bad it's their henged looks, which will be irrelevant soon :P


	3. Chapter 3

     Despite the children's excitement over their senesi being the fourth Hokage, Minato couldn't help but notice the scaffolding arranged over the mountain in the next space over. They couldn't be that far into the future. Sure, Kakashi had already trained a genin team and Genma had quit Anbu but there were a lot of familiar faces, especially the closer they got to Hokage tower. He had a bad feeling about this. He exchanged a glance with his wife as they entered the tower, she hadn't missed the apparent work of a fifth face being added either. Minato worried about what could have happened to him, for there to already be another Hokage, and he was especially worried about how Hound would take the revelation. His only surviving student had lost so many people already.

     Their suspicions were proven correct when Genma stepped out of the way as they entered the Hokage's office. A familiar woman sat behind the desk waiting for them. “Tsunade-sama?” Minato-sensei asked in shock.

     As soon as they were all inside Genma stepped back out again and activated several security seals from outside the office and Tsunade spoke. “You can drop the henges, and start explaining what you know.”

     As their disguises disappeared Tsunade frowned at their familiar features, while the woman standing at Tsunade's side looked on with wide eyes. “I thought we were here to see the Hokage! Where's Minato-sensei?” Obito cried, pointing dramatically at Tsunade.

     “I am the Hokage, brat! Deal with it on your own time.” She said before tossing back a drink and setting her gaze on Minato. “What. Happened.”

     “We were in my office” Minato said, glancing around at the room they were currently occupying “and then we weren't. We'd been discussing and double checking the security measures and the plan we have in place for when Naruto is born and then we were all tangled up with the rest of them.” Minato gestured to the other travelers.

     “Tsunade's head tilted and she looked to the next group, scowling suddenly. “This is going to be impossible. What am I supposed to call all of you?”

     “I suppose we could be Minato-sensei and Kushina-nee for now, Rin and Obito don't need different names.” Kushina-nee suggested.

      “You could be Kashi for now?” Sakumo asked his son, who seemed to scowl but didn't refuse, even though Obito laughed.

     “Alright, Minato-sensei?” Tsunade prompted the younger blonde to report.

      “We-” Before Minato-sensei could explain Kushina-nee overrode him angrily. “We were going to eat ramen!” Right on cue her stomach growled and she glared at the room in general.

      “Oh, I would love some ramen right now.” Kushina agreed, rubbing her swolen stomach.

      With a sigh Minato-sensei continued. “Yes, because our team was just assigned an A-rank mission and we were spending some time together before we had to leave the village.” Minato explained.

      Tsunade's eyes narrowed at him and her lips tightened into a frown, eyes flicking between the three Kakashis in the groups. Her gaze stayed on hound.

     “Take that thing off already brat! You can't wear that mask forever.” Tsunade insisted of Hound.

     Hound flinched then hesitated, with jerky movements he removed the mask and revealed his identity though his left eye remained closed. While Obito exclaimed over a third Kakashi Tsunade nodded to him with a sigh and turned to Sakumo, but before she could ask for their explanation the seals broke and the door slid open.

     “I have brought him as requested Hokage-Sama!” A man in a ridiculous green jumpsuit called boisterously as he bounded into the room, carrying another man over his shoulder. The man had silver hair sticking up in a tangle and was reading a bright orange book despite the uncomfortable position he was being carried in.

     “Finally!” Tsunade snapped.

      “Not that this isn't embarrassing but would you mind putting me down Guy?” A familiar voice asked the ostentatious jonin.

      “You should be more punctual my friend! Though I would be happy to walk with you more often!” The man, Guy apparently, said.

      “Maa, I needed a break after helping so many old ladies with their groceries.” The familiar man said calmly as he twisted suddenly and fluidly slid off the man's shoulder.

      “I shall help you next time! I challenge you to see who can carry more groceries at once! If I don't beat you then I'll restock every grocery shelf in Konoha!” Guy proclaimed.

      “You know, muscle develops when the body is at rest. If you want to get stronger you should learn to relax.” The silver haired jonin said without looking up from his book.

     “Another fantastic idea my Eternal Rival! Our next challenge will be who can rest the longest! I will see if I can convince young Shikamaru to teach me the tricks of the Secret Art of the Nap!” Guy cried with a sparkling grin as the jonin glanced up from his book in resignation.

     After the strange Guy left the room was resealed as Tsunade took another long drink. With a jaunty flourish of one hand the silver haired jonin focused on the Hokage. “You wanted something Tsunade-sama?”

     “Kakashi you brat! I called for you half an hour ago, and don't give me any of that 'got lost on the road of life' nonsense!” The Hokage shouted suddenly, startling all of the time travelers as she slammed an open palm on her desk sending a crack through the wood.

     “Hai, hai. I'm here already, no need for a fuss.” The assembled figures gaped at the chipper response to the legendary sannin's show of strength and anger. _How the hell was he so calm?_

      Tsunade sank back into her seat, gesturing the man closer to her desk which he approached seemingly without fear of being harmed. “As you can see” and here she waved to the three groups behind him “we have a situation.”

      The present Kakashi turned a fraction to take them all in, his one eye sweeping over them and cataloguing all of the myriad subtle details proving that they were indeed who they appeared to be. The details no imposter could possibly replicate. “So I can see. May I ask how this happened?”

     “Apparently Sasuke tripped something in one of Orochimaru's labs and activated some kind of jutsu. They all just appeared and half the cave system collapsed around them. I've been in contact with them and Sasuke has agreed that he and his team will search for any scrolls that were lost in the rubble and anything else that might help explain what happened but in the meantime he sent them here, obviously we don't know what will happen if any of them die before we find a way to send them back, assuming we can even figure out if it's even possible.”

     “Sure. That makes sense. Logical. Why am I here then?” His eye narrowed and he stared at her, a tenseness to his slouched figure that only Hound truly understood.

     “Well obviously a single well defensible location is best, so they're going to stay with you at the Hatake compound.” Tsunade said decisively, unsmiling.

     This time Kakashi's hand clenched into a fist and he stared at her angrily, but otherwise remained still. Tsunade stared back sternly, clearly not willing to entertain any argument on the subject. “It's quite a mess, might not even be habitable anymore.” Kakashi insisted.

     “I'm sure you can clean it up, with all these hands.” Tsunade nodded in their direction. “I'll send Sakura around after you to help out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ugh! I had stuff I wanted to say here and now I can't remember! x.x


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.. as I recall there are some questions/concerns about the timeline of this story, basically, I have some pretty big gaps in my knowledge of Naruto canon, so my original intention with this story was that it was an AU that would vaguely resemble canon except there would definitely be errors just because I don't know this or that or mixed some things up... but unfortunately this chapter happened... so when you're done reading this chapter read the notes at the end too...  
> and if differentiating the characters is still unclear, here's how I'll be referring to them in the story:  
> Sakumo, Kashi  
> Minato-sensei, Kushina-nee, Kakashi, Obito, Rin  
> Minato, Kushina, Hound  
> Kakashi-sensei

     The group reapplied their henges and followed the oldest Kakashi from the office and out of Hokage Tower. Most of them were caught in silent contemplation of everything they were learning from observation. Minato-sensei desperately wanted to know more, about _everything_ , but he was worried how knowing too much would affect their situation.

     He'd studied what he could of time-space ninjutsu when he was working on the Hiraishin but there wasn't much known about how such jutsu did or could work. There was also Orochimaru's involvement to consider, he'd never spent more time around his sensei's teammate than necessary so he didn't know the man well, _but why would Orochimaru have any interest in his team? Why did Orochimaru have a lab outside of the Leaf Village anyway?_ Minato-sensei frowned at the thought and was grateful when Kushina-nee's tug on his arm pulled him out of his thoughts.

     The successive trip through the village was more winding, and taken at a sedate pace. As though Kakashi-sensei didn't have any intention of arriving at his destination any time soon. To be honest, Minato was worried about Kushina, though he didn't say anything, so as to avoid getting any new bruises when she inevitably berated him for thinking she couldn't handle a stroll through the village.

     “Oi! Kakashi- _sensei~_ ,” Kushina called out teasingly as she caught up to the leader of their group, “are we getting there any time soon or should we stop for ramen on the way?”

     The flicker of a glance she got in response was disheartening but he shrugged and offered “No food in the house anyway, if you're hungry you should probably eat while we're here.”

     Here being roughly the center of the village's market and commerce area, where most of the restaurants were located.  
“Yay! Ramen time! To Ichiraku's!” Kushina cheered, Kushina-nee joining in as she bounced up ahead of the crowd to join her fellow self.

     Minato and Minato-sensei traded horrified glances as they both realized that of course Kushina would be fast friends with _herself_ , and now there would be two Kushina's who would have no trouble teaming up against the world, and them. This could be a disaster, they would have to be extra careful about staying on their Kushina's good sides.

     The outraged shrieks drew them out of their wallowing despair, and they both looked up to see Kushina and Kushina-nee nearly in tears as they stared at a dango shop. _Dango? Wasn't this where Ichiraku's stall was?_

     “Kakashi-sensei? Please tell me we're in a genjutsu...” Kushina-nee trailed off in a whine.

     “Where's Ichiraku's? Kakashi-sensei?” Kushina pleaded as she turned to the man.

     “Couple streets over now, actually.” Kakashi-sensei said without looking up from his book.

     “WHERE!” “WHERE IS IT?” They both demanded, clinging to Kakashi-sensei's arms and shaking him insistently.

     Kakashi-sensei finally looked up from his book and blinked at them before pointing down another road. They turned to look at the side street, as though they'd be able to see their target. “Oh wait, maybe it's that way?” He said, turning to another road and scratching his head comically.

     Both Kushina's jaws dropped as they stared back at him.

     “Maybe it was over in that direction?” Kakashi-sensei said as he turned to look back the way they'd come.

     “Kakashi.” Minato-sensei said weakly at the hole Kakashi-sensei was digging himself as two angry Kushina's stood over him, they looked just short of releasing their killer intent on him.

     “Ah... I think I'll look over here.” Kakashi-sensei said finally, apparently ignorant of both Kushina's rage, turning clear around and striding off confidently while the rest of them exchanged confused looks before following along like ducklings. Bewildered ducklings following furious ducklings following the apparently oblivious Kakashi-sensei.

     _What was happening to the world?_ Minato-sensei wondered in bewilderment. _  
_

     It didn't take long to get to the apparently recently built Ichiraku Ramen stand, and the place looked nearly identical to the one they all remembered so well, just in a different place. With a nod Kakashi-sensei vanished, though most of them could tell that he was still nearby on a rooftop.

     “Guess he's not hungry?” Rin suggested as she blinked at the empty space where their guide had been standing a moment before.

     “Well I am! Three bowls of salt ramen!” Kushina-nee shouted, while at the same time Kushina demanded “Five bowls of salt ramen!” as they both barged through the curtain.

     “Maybe we should hang back for a minute?” Minato-sensei suggested as they all listened to the two chatter about ramen. How much more ramen Kushina was craving recently, and how much less ramen she got to eat because she had to stay healthy for Naruto. Not to mention how much she was looking forward to being able to eat all the ramen she wanted soon, and ramen ramen ramen.

     When the rest of the group finally ducked into the stall, which was now a bit too crowded with all of them inside though luckily they were the only customers at the moment, Teuchi smiled back at them, as did a young woman who Minato realized must be Teuchi's daughter Ayame. Teuchi looked a bit suspiciously at his first two customers, and Minato wondered if even with them being henged Kushina and Kushina-nee were acting a bit to much like themselves to fool someone who knew them. Though it would naturally throw the man off that there were two women who sounded and acted like Kushina.

     Despite the fact that for them it hadn't been long at all that they'd last eaten at Ichiraku's, somehow placing their orders felt nostalgic.

     Teuchi chuckled when Kushina-nee demanded two more bowls of ramen just to prove she loved ramen as much as Kushina did. “So many ramen lovers! Do we have some new regulars?” He teased as he prepared the food.

     “Definitely! We'll be back all the time so you better get used to these smiling faces!” Kushina-nee said, pointing a fake threatening finger at her favorite cook as she beamed at him. An elbow jab to Kushina's shoulder had her grinning just as widely up at Teuchi.

     “Glad to hear it! It's always nice meeting new faces.” Teuchi agreed, unaware of the pang of sadness this gave his disguised customers who wished their friend could recognize them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this chapter just kind of happened, this was not the Chapter 4 that I wrote like 4 months ago and have had so much trouble finishing. Also, somehow this chapter seems to take place after Konoha was rebuilt after Pain's attack, well until now I was intending for this story to be set at about the time Naruto comes back from his long training trip (that's Shippuden Episode 1 right?), so huh... not sure how to fix that... so since I'm already ignoring canon on some things anyway lets just randomly say that Pain's attack was earlier and … there's really no explanation for the details of that... just isn't. Just go with it I guess... like... maybe Naruto is thought well of but isn't the village hero... maybe only parts of Konoha were destroyed and some was fine, so the Hatake estate is still fine... Seriously I don't KNOW! WHY!!!!! ~sigh... :P  
> I mean the story is supposed to be more about the characters and Kakashi's issues then the plot of Naruto canon and/or changing it, so I guess the characters know even less about and are even less concerned with Akatsuki, Pain is more of an independent only loosely affiliated with Tobi/Obito/Madara and all that... I guess that's the best way to think of it at the moment... >.>  
> Edit 8/3/18: actually, ignore all that about this being after Pain's attack! Ichiraku's could have been destroyed during the Kyubi attack! Then all of the Time travelers would still be surprised at the new location but it would still be the same place it's always been to Naruto... or if absolutely necessary I could say Ichiraku's was destroyed during the Sand/Sound invasion! Okay! It's one of those! The loosely resembling canon AU returns!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wait a second! Ichiraku's could have been destroyed during the kyubi attack! Then all of the Time travelers would still be surprised at the new location but it would still be the same place it's always been to Naruto... or if absolutely necessary I could say Ichiraku's was destroyed during the Sand/Sound invasion! Okay! It's one of those! The loosely resembling canon AU returns!  
> And last chapter I said how each character would be referred to, well Obito disagrees and may call each Kakashi 'Bakashi' if he wants too...

     Minato hardly blinked when Kakashi-sensei reappeared beside them the moment they exited the ramen stall and started walking without a word, he was already getting used to keeping track of the chakra of four different Kakashi's around him. Not everyone was acclimating to so many Kakashi's as well however. As the group followed Kakashi-sensei from the restaurant Minato fought down a chuckle at Obito's sudden outburst.

     “I can't believe this! Why is Bakashi _everywhere_!?” Flailing suddenly in frustration Obito whined to no one in particular, catching up to the jonin and glaring up at his masked face.

     “Is there even anything wrong with your eye? Or is that mask just to irritate people?”

     “Maa~” Kakashi-sensei said slowly, turning to blink an eye smile at the student. “Obviously I must have a hideous scar?” Kakashi-sensei asked, and Obito remembered that the anbu who had turned out to be Kakashi too had kept that same eye closed, and there had been a rather long scar running through it.

     “It wasn't that bad, did you lose the eye?” Obito glanced guiltily back at the henged man he thought was the anbu kakashi, and didn't that just grate on his nerves, the high and mighty know-it-all actually made anbu! It was so frustrating, _and where was he? Why hadn't his own older self been caught up in this time travel crazyness too so that he could see how he'd turned out?_ Maybe he could track down the version of himself who was from this time... if he wasn't too busy going on awesome missions.

     Kakashi-sensei tilted his head consideringly, which was seriously out of character for the Kakashi that Obito knew and then followed his glance back at Hound. “Hmm. Who knows.” Was all Kakashi-sensei said and Obito stared at him in surprised annoyance.

     “You would!” Obito demanded hotly. “Do you have two eyes or not?”

     Instead of answering Kakashi-sensei started whistling and picked up his pace. Obito gaped after him while most of the time travelers passed him. Rin nudged him in the shoulder to keep up with them and Obito decided he would stick with his team, blinking in confusion at the Kakashi he knew.

     “What happened to you?” He asked his teammate, bewildered. _Had_ Kakashi-sensei _just been_ teasing _him?_ _What was happening to the world?_ This wasn't the future, this was some twisted nightmare where Kakashi of all people was an amiable person.

     “How would _I_ know?” Bakashi barked at him, discomfited himself at his older self's strange personality shift.

     “I thought he was kind of funny.” Rin said with a smile. “Do you think there are many people who've seen him with his face uncovered? Or has he turned it into a game and is being really mysterious about it?” She giggled at the amusing possibilities.

     Kakashi glared at her briefly while Obito despaired and Minato-sensei and Kushina-nee traded amused glances over their heads. They were both looking forward to seeing more of this adult Kakashi, curious about how the man had turned out. He was around their age after all, and had apparently survived anbu, though they were both concerned with the silent young man who stuck to the older Minato and Kushina like glue.

     Around them the streets had emptied as they approached an older section of the village where some of the older clans' lands were located. The wall of the Hatake compound came into sight and nearly everyone tensed nervously. The disrepair was already obvious, there was more than one cracked wall and weeds and vines had sprung up everywhere. Minato remembered that though much of the clan's buildings were closed up and no longer used Sakumo had always kept the compound's outward appearance neat enough.

     When they reached the gate they dropped their henges, after all if they were going to be repairing the place they'd need their chakra for other tasks and they couldn't hold onto their disguises all day every day for the foreseeable future. Besides, it looked as though passers by were rare in this area anyway. Minato-sensei frowned at that thought, _wasn't this road part of the scenic route to the Uchiha compound?_

     “Well what are we waiting for? Let's go Bakashi!” Obito demanded, striding forward again to jab Kakashi-sensei in the side. The man avoided his hand with a twist that turned his whole body around to face them again and Obito flailed as Kakashi-sensei seemingly didn't notice him at all.

     “Maa~ give me a moment to disable the wards at least. I haven't been here in years.” He brushed a hand over the back of his head theatrically. “Not even sure I remember.”

     He turned back to the gate and gazed inside blankly until Hound strode forward to join him and ran through an extensive series of hand signs. They all felt the wards dispel, the amount of chakra released was startling and the adults realized that the wards had been accumulating nature chakra to renew their strength on their own instead of requiring someone to come by and refresh them. Hound stepped away again, ignoring the nod of thanks from Kakashi-sensei.

     “Okay, _now_ what are we waiting for!?” Obito said indignantly.

     “Just trying to remember all the traps I left lying around.” Kakashi-sensei said while taking up a thoughtful pose.

     “Argh!” Obito cried, flopping down to lay on the ground. “Is this how much I annoy you Bakashi? I get it, enough payback already!” He whined with a dramatic flailing of an arm in Kakashi's direction.

     “Kakashi-sensei!” They heard two voices shout from the rooftops behind them. The group looked up as the air was suddenly filled with the sound of running feet snapping against the tile that lined the top edge of the wall beside them. One blazing chakra signature that the adults all knew with certainty was mixed with the nine-tailed fox and another well controlled flame with an edge of steel.

     In a flash the chakra resolved into a girl with bright pink hair and a blonde boy with the most obnoxious orange jacket they'd ever seen dashing towards them, both grinning as they lept from the roof towards Kakashi-sensei. Kakashi-sensei turned to face the newcomers as they flew over everyone's heads and pelted towards him.

     A sudden kawarami startled the travelers as the blonde boy tumbled over the road, having fumbled the log that had appeared in Kakashi-sensei's place and tripped himself. The pink haired girl, who was wearing bright red, skidded to a better stop and turned in a quick circle. Her eyes were instantly darting over their surroundings until she spotted her target and planted her hands on her hips to glare at him.

     “This doesn't seem like someone who wants my help, maybe Tsunade-sama meant someone else.” The girl said, and taking in the diamond on her forehead Minato-sensei and his elder self gulped, worried how strong a temper that glare was preceding.

     “Yeah!” The blonde agreed loudly. “And why'd you have ta dodge like that Kakashi-sensei?”

     “Well you shouldn't announce your attacks so loudly like that if you want them to work.” Kakashi-sensei said, landing lightly in front of them again.

     Dropping the log the blonde stood up and brushed himself off, seemingly losing steam for his complaint. “How come you never told us you've got a clan compound?” He demanded instead. “Your apartment is tiny, why don't you live here?”

    _Apartment? Well he did have to be living somewhere if it wasn't here, but surely he had better options than such a small space as the boy implied?_ Minato worried.

     “Too much work. If I had to keep up the repairs on this whole place myself I'd never have any time to read. Or torture my cute little students.” Kakashi-sensei said with an eye smile.

     “Like you haven't read enough of those dirty books to last a lifetime! You and pervy-sage are the worst!” The boy shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Kakashi-sensei, at his teacher.

     _So these two were some of Kakashi-sensei's students? One clearly a jinchiruki and the other who must have also been taught by Tsunade-sama?_ _If they were from the same team as the Uchiha they'd already met then they must have been formidable, so why was the Uchiha outside the village then?_ So many questions circled the minds of the travelers as they watched the drama unfolding in front of them.

     The boy trying repeatedly and flamboyantly to tackle Kakashi-sensei, or take his book which never dropped from where he held it in front of his face as he dodged with truly ridiculous ease. The girl getting fed up and screaming half-fond insults as she punched the boy clear across the road and berating both teammate and teacher alike for their antics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I don't know the layout of the Leaf village, but for the purposes of this story apparently you can get to the Uchiha compound by passing by the Hatake compound. Why not. :)


End file.
